Homosexuality, or the sexual
and/or emotional desire for others of the same gender as oneself, is found widely among
the societies of the world. However, the social acceptance of it varies
dramatically. In fact, the range in permissiveness and restrictiveness with regards
to homosexual acts is at least as great as it is for heterosexual
ones. In the
United States, for instance, there has been a wide difference in legal restraints on sexuality
from state to state. Some states, like California, essentially have the same
restrictions on both homosexuality and heterosexuality. That is, all sex
acts that do not lead to bodily harm are legal as long as they are done with consenting
adults in private. However, California shares the oldest age of consent (18) among
the states. The youngest (13) is in New Mexico.

Fourteen
states, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. military have criminalized "unnatural sex
acts" or "crimes against nature"--that is, they have anti-sodomy
laws. Sodomy
is generally defined as anal or oral copulation with another person or animal.
It is also sometimes defined in law more ambiguously as non-reproductive sex.
Ten of these states extended
anti-sodomy laws to heterosexual partners as
well. There has been considerable variation in the possible
penalty for this crime. In Louisiana, for instance, sodomy
has been a felony that could result in a 5
year prison sentence, $2000 fine, and exclusion from public jobs
such as teaching and the law. In Idaho, it
theoretically could result in life in prison. However, few people are
prosecuted under anti-sodomy laws in the U.S. In Arkansas, for instance,
the current anti-sodomy law has been in existence since 1977, but there have
not been any prosecutions based on it. In June 2003, the U.S. Supreme
Court struck down a Texas anti-sodomy law. This decision
very likely will have the
effect of nullifying all such laws in the country.
These legal changes regarding homosexuality apparently reflect a growing
acceptance, or at least tolerance, of it among the general public.

U. S.
States With Anti-Sodomy Laws(prior to the June 2003 Supreme Court ruling that very
likely nullifies
them)

Elsewhere in the world, attitudes and
legal consequences for homosexuality vary from wide acceptance in Western
Europe to absolute rejection in some nations of the Middle East, Africa, and
Asia. In sixteen nations, the punishment for
sodomy can be life in prison or even death. The most severe penalties are in
the Islamic
nations that adhere to traditional law based on
interpretations of the
Koran .

In consideringthis information, it is important to keep in
mind that the existence of harsh legal consequences for homosexuality does not
necessarily result in people being prosecuted. In Afghanistan, for
instance, there is a widespread tradition of male homosexuality.
Estimates of the number of Afghan men who engage in sex with teenage boys or
other men at some time in their lives range from 18-50%. This unusually
high frequency is quite surprising since Islamic law in Afghanistan mandates that
sodomy be punished by being burned at the stake, pushed off of a cliff,
or crushed under a toppled wall. In 1998, three homosexual men
were executedin the city of Kandahar
by the then ruling ultraconservative Taliban by having a tank push a brick wall over
on them.

There
is a curious double standard in regards to anti-homosexual
laws--they do not always apply to
lesbians.
This may be due to the fact that the
existence of female homosexuality is less likely to be socially acknowledged
or that it is considered acceptable behavior, at least in private.
This double standard is most common in the South Pacific Islands, the
non-Islamic nations of Africa, and some Caribbean Islands on which a high
percentage of the population has Sub-Saharan African ancestral roots.
Governments may even officially deny that any form of homosexuality occurs.
This apparently has been the the case
in Albania, Bangladesh, Congo, Lebanon, and Liberia.

Nations in Which Only Male Homosexuality is
Criminalized(Female Homosexual Acts are Apparently Ignored)

In 1991, the
World Health Organization removed homosexuality as an illness from their
classification of diseases. Contrary to common belief in Western
Nations, laws criminalizing homosexuality are not universally disappearing
around the world. In the 1990's, Nicaragua enacted a
law
making it a crime. However, in the same decade, 8 nations
and territories rescinded
their anti-homosexuality statutes (Bahamas, Belize, Chile, Hong Kong
[China], Ireland, Latvia,
Russia, and Ukraine).

In
some societies, homosexuality has been socially accepted but limited to certain times and
to certain individuals. For example, The Papago
Indians of southern Arizona
traditionally set aside nights during which any man could perform homosexual acts.
Women could as well if they had the permission of their husbands.

The Papago also had a
socially accepted status for transvestite
men. They wore women's clothing
throughout the year and did women's chores. Unmarried men were allowed to visit
them for homosexual acts.

NOTE:
transvestitism, or the wearing of clothes and bodily adornment normally associated with
the other gender, is not necessarily connected with homosexuality. It is important
to understand the specific cultural patterns. In North America, for instance, some
strictly heterosexual men are sexually stimulated by putting on female clothes, especially
undergarments. Likewise, many homosexual men do not wear such garb or even approve
of it.

North
Americanwoman wearing
traditionally
"masculine" clothes

HeterosexualPlains Indian man

There is a double standard
in regards to transvestitism, or cross dressing, in North America today.
Women are permitted to wear overtly masculine clothing without social disapproval,
especially in business and recreational settings. However, American men are much
more restricted in their clothing choices. When it becomes known that a man wears
dresses or other female garb, he is almost universally stigmatized and often labeled as a
homosexual. This can have major negative effects on his career, social life, and
even personal safety.

The anthropologically most well known transvestites who also
often happened to be homosexuals were the berdache, or two-spirited, men of
the North American Great Plains Indian tribes. These men led the lives of women and
had socially accepted statuses--they were valued members of their societies.

Heterosexual Plains Indian
men who were going on hunting or war expeditions generally held the view that sex with
their wives or other women was polluting and depleting. In contrast, a two-spirited
man did not pose these dangers. As a result, two-spirited men were regularly taken
along to perform women's chores and to entertain. Some of them were renowned story
tellers.

The Hijras
of India
are another example of a culturally accepted (or at least tolerated) male transvestite
status. These are men who dress as women but apparently are not often homosexual. Many Hijras even have their genital organs surgically removed to
symbolize their transition to "womanhood." They are devotees of the Hindu
mother goddess Bahuchara Mata. Through emasculation, they express their faith in
her and become conduits for her power. The Hijras are difficult to label as to
gender. They identify themselves as "incomplete men", "incomplete
women", or "inbetweens", but the Indian national census counts them as
women. There are about 50,000 true Hijras today living mostly in North Indian urban
centers. They work at many different kinds of jobs
including construction. However, the largest percentage of them make
their living by blessing babies and entertaining at parties. Some of the
better Hijra musicians, dancers, and singers perform regularly in Indian films. Recently, a
few of the Hijras have successfully run for public office, especially in Utar
Pradesh State. In 2003, however, a court in Madhya Pradesh State ruled
that a Hijra must give up his office as mayor of Katni because he is a male
and this political office was reserved for women. There are 10's of thousands of other eunuchs and
homosexuals in India who dress as women and falsely claim to be Hijras. Many of
them make their living on the edges of society by prostitution or by extorting
money for blessing children. Few people refuse to give them money for
fear of being cursed.

Do you think that the
people in these photos
are real women or Hijras?

Click the button to see
if you are correct.

The Etoro
and some other societies of
the Trans-Fly River region in southern New Guinea provide an extreme example of the social
acceptance of male homosexuality. Apparently, all Etoro men engage in homosexual
acts and most also marry and engage in heterosexual acts with their wives. However,
heterosexual intercourse is prohibited for up to 260 days of the year and is forbidden in
or near their houses and vegetable gardens. In contrast, homosexual relations are
permitted at any time.

Jiwiki
men in New
Guinea

The Etoro believe that
homosexual acts make crops flourish and boys strong. Etoro men and women mostly live
apart so that social contact between them is generally limited and often hostile.
Not surprisingly, their birth rates are low. To compensate for this problem and to
avoid depopulation, they allegedly have stolen children from neighboring societies and
raised them as their own.

There is no clear
explanation as to why societies are permissive or restrictive in regards to
homosexuality. However, there are two interesting correlations. First,
societies that strongly forbid abortion and infanticide are likely to be equally intolerant of
homosexuality. Second, societies that have frequent severe food shortages are more
likely to allow homosexuality. An implication is that homosexuality may be tolerated
and even encouraged when there is severe population pressure. Heterosexual
abstinence and other birth control methods would be expected to be common then also.
That appears to have been the case with the Plains Indians and some New Guinea societies.

NOTE:It is not clear what leads one person to be homosexual
and another to be heterosexual or bisexual. Both environmental and
social factors have been proposed by psychologists and others engaged in
researching this question. In reality, both kinds of factors may be
involved to some degree. In addition, an individual may change sexual
preference at different phases of his or her life. Anthony Bogaert's
recent research at Brock University in St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada
indicates that birth order within a family may be an important factor in
male homosexuality. He found that the more biological older brothers a
man has, the more likely he will be homosexual, and that it does not matter
if he is raised with his older brothers. It may be that each
succeeding pregnancy with a male child somehow causes a mother's immune
system to respond to male fetuses in a way that changes their sex-related
brain development. This same correlation between male birth order and
homosexuality does not occur if older siblings are half-brothers,
stepbrothers, or adopted brothers. (Science News Vol. 170 July
1, 2006)